“Kobaloi?”

  She nodded her head slowly.

  “Six of them, to be specific.”

  I took a deep breath and then sprinted forward. That must’ve caught Nix off guard because she yelled, ‘wow, really’ from behind me. I ran down the same back street I had used to come to school. If they were too slow to catch me in the morning, they should be too slow to catch me now. Nix glided up beside me.

  “So, you’re seriously pnning to let them chase you home?”

  Over her voice, I could hear a dozen feet spping quickly against the asphalt. They weren’t even trying to be stealthy anymore.

  “Yeah, once I lock the door behind me, I’ll be safe.”

  Nix made a show of rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

  “But what happens when they break in and murder your family? Or if they just burn the house down while you all sleep?”

  I narrowed my eyes at her.

  “They wouldn’t do that?”

  The question came out more desperate than I wanted it to.

  “They probably won’t burn your house. They really like stealing things, but they’ll definitely slice your family to bits while you watch.”

  I stopped running and turned to face whatever was chasing me. There were 6 two foot tall, green guys with huge pointed ears and sharp yellow teeth chasing me. Five of them wore nothing nothing more than loincloth around their waists. One of them wore a neckce with shards of stone on it. He also carried a staff, while the others carried daggers.

  “What do you guys want?”

  Nix floated off to my right side. I gnced at her, knowing she was judging whatever I did next. The one with the neckce answered me.

  “We’re going to kill you and get the reward.”

  I ughed incredulously. This situation just kept getting worse. I hadn’t done anything to warrant a hit squad being sent after me, but here I was.

  “Nice Stormie, normally you gotta take out a few heroes to get a bounty put on you.”

  The look I shot Nix was anything but amused. She was another yer of the same problem. My new unwanted babysitter. It was all too much to take, and now my family wasn’t even safe anymore.

  ‘I should turn them all into smoking piles of ash.’

  The thought came and went with a simple shrug of my shoulders. What was the point? If I killed them, Nix would just try to kill me again. I truly wanted it to all be over. I stood my ground against the soldier. This time, I had a different strategy in mind.

  The neckce wearer pointed his staff at me. A ball of fire the size of my head shot out of the end of it. I had time to deflect it, but why? I spread my arms wide and let it sm into my chest.

  Well, it actually hit my wall of wind that activated on its own, but my point was made. I wasn’t going to fight back. Nix glided over to me.

  “What the hell are you doing, Stormy? You do realize that this wind shield can only take so many hits before it breaks, right?”

  I looked over at her and smiled just before a second fireball smmed into my shield. Nix looked from me to the kobaloi, visibly shaken.

  “So, this is suicide by kobaloi? Stop being dumb and fight back.”

  Another fireball smmed into my shield. This time, it was rger. It forced me to take a half step backward.

  “Stop treating me like the second coming of Typhon and I’ll fight back.”

  Nix’s jaw tightened as she gred at me.

  “This situation doesn’t even count. They attacked you. It’s okay to-”

  A fireball cut her off when it flew too close to her face. A lightning bolt the size of a fully grown tree hit the kobalo that stood closest to her. It disintegrated into nothing. Nix looked at the kobalo in the neckce.

  “Calm down. I’m trying to convince him to kill you.”

  She turned back to me.

  “I’m not fighting them, or anything else, while you look at me like I’m the problem.”

  She huffed and folded her arms over her chest.

  “You’d really let them kill you just to prove a point to me?”

  I nodded.

  “I have a price on my head. I have no idea what the hell is going on around me anymore. And to make it worse, my family is in danger. I could really use a teacher. I have more than enough judges.”

  Nix tapped her right index finger on the back of her left hand rapidly before answering.

  “Okay, kill them and we’ll work out a new arrangement.”

  I couldn’t help smiling at the thought of melting the kobalo with the staff.

  “Okay, deal.”

  I held out my hand for Nix to shake and a fireball flew at it. I redirected it, aiming it back it the staff wielder’s face. He smacked it away and gred at me.

  “What are you waiting for? Kill the evil one!”

  It gave the command and the other four kobaloi immediately followed it. They spread out in front of it with their daggers raised and ready to strike. I held out my right hand and thought, ‘come on acid.’ The thick green liquid began spraying out of my hand.

  I waved it across the line of kobaloi, coating each of them in a generous yer of acid. They screamed in pain as they each rapidly dissolved into green puddles.

  “Too easy.”

  I took a step toward the only kobalo left. He didn’t look phased. It didn’t bother me he would be dead before he could truly understand how much danger he was truly in any way. I raised my hand to spray him as well, but he raised his own hand as well and I stopped. He tapped his staff on the ground and the four puddles of smoking goo reformed into the kobaloi they used to be.

  I took a step backward, stunned by what I had just seen.

  “I’ve never seen that before. You’re fighting zombie kobaloi. This is why I like hanging around you, Stormy.”

  “That’s not really helpful.”

  I watched the group of kobaloi as they approached me and tried to figure out what to do next. Maybe the one with the staff could only do that once. I sprayed them all again. Just like the first time, they melted. And then, just like the first time, he tapped his staff, and they reformed. I looked over at Nix.

  “This would be a great time for a lesson, of some sort.”

  She stroked her chin while thinking.

  “The lessons start after you kill them, besides I already helped you by killing one of them for you.”

  I looked back at the group of kobaloi. Nix was no help. Even though she did have a point. The one she killed was the only one that remained dead. Then again, if a bolt of lightning that big had hit me, I wouldn’t be in a rush to go see whoever hit me with it again, either. So going by that logic, all I had to do now was hit them with attacks as strong as she did and they would stay dead? Of course, I would need to get that strong. This was going to be a very annoying fight.